Ireland thoughts
Posted on May 26, 2007 5 Comments
Since returning home, I’ve been struggling a bit to organize my thoughts on Ireland. It was a whirlwind 10 days. We took only what we could carry on our back, used public transportation, and stayed at hotels and B&Bs in five different cities. My overall impression of Ireland is still forming, but from here I can say it was a place filled with contradictions that defied expectations.
The island was filled with amazing sights — thousand-year old monasteries and ancient Celtic forts, tombs older than the pyramids, dramatic 300-foot cliffs — but also with packed tour buses. (We were surprised, because it was technically still the off-season.) Locals seemed to be few and far between — most pubs, in towns large and small, were packed with friendly foreigners. The locals we did meet were concerned about the presence of tourists in their small seaside towns, but took the chance to hang with us, introduce us to friends and chat.
The landscape was gorgeous, of course, but most photos you see are exactly that, photo opps, one “traditional Irish cottage” placed quaintly next to modern homes. Cities are growing, expanding (the ever-present construction crane leads you to the city center), but in some cases, seem to be struggling to keep up — in most of the towns we visited on the West coast, the water was contaminated and undrinkable for three months. Rowdy stag and hen parties (bachelor and bachelorette parties) fill the streets but don’t seem welcome by bartenders.
The temperature was colder than expected, a brisk (gale-force) wind blew most days, with a “soft” rain in the morning. Glimpses of the sun, of warmth, were cherished, even in mid-May.
Still, despite the contradictions, there’s something haunting about the place. The music stays in your head, sometimes joyful, others sad, always played proudly. When you can find it, a peaceful moment among green pastures, or overlooking a deep blue sea, or in the gray burren, takes your breath away. Sharing an Irish coffee with new friends, talking about our dreams and our differences, is something I’ll always remember.
Since this is a budgeting page, I have to warn you – the conversion rate is awful. When we were there, the dollar to Euro was about $1.40. We were trying to get rooms for 70 Euro per night, meals for about 10 Euro and drinks/entertainment about 10-15 Euro per day, plus we were taking public transportation everywhere. As you’d imagine, you don’t get much for it. But with the conversion rate, that was about all we could spend. I didn’t buy any souviners except three cards with Celtic designs on them for my family, and a pair of mittens because my hands were freezing.
By the end of the trip we were pretty worn down. I think we may have tried to do too much! Despite keeping open minds, we longed for the comforts of home (fresh water, cheap fruits and veggies, a supportive mattress, etc.). It wasn’t the longest I’ve been away, nor am I a novice at overseas travel, but for the first time, coming home after a big trip made me realize just how great I have it.
As I think some more about my trip…enjoy some pics!
At the Kylemore Abby:
At the Cliffs of Mohor:
At the Pitch-N-Putt in Dingle
On the Dingle Peninsula
Cute photo op in Connemara
Note: There are many ways to travel Ireland that probably would have made a difference in our trip. For instance, if we would have taken a car, we could have visited locations before all the tour buses. We didn’t take it because of the cost, and because we were told the roads in Western Ireland are bad. They aren’t. Take a car if you go, and get to the sites either early or late.
I also think that if you’ve got more money to spend, you won’t be so worn by the end of the trip. We were definitely traveling on a budget. That meant sparse accommodations and cheap meals. But every town had GREAT luxury accommodations – we just couldn’t afford them (which is OK by me). If you can spend like 200 euro per night on hotels (that’s $280) and 20-30 Euro on meals, go for it. We stepped into a couple “luxury” hotels and they looked amazing! But I wouldn’t spend that much on any trip, because then you can only take like one trip every five years and what fun is that?
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5 Responses to “Ireland thoughts”
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May 27th, 2007 @ 11:52 pm
My wife is officially jealous. She wants to go back there in the worst way!
May 29th, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
I am glad that you had a safe trip and that you shared your experience. I think overall, it’s always great to have an experience that you can look back and say, I saw that or I experienced that. Kudos to you for going and living life. =)
May 30th, 2007 @ 8:24 pm
there is also http://www.couchsurfing.com
May 30th, 2007 @ 8:59 pm
sounds like you had a great trip. fyi, i just found you while i was surfing the PF blog community. i love traveling and believe it’s worth a lot more than it costs, despite the fact that it always costs a lot!
June 13th, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
I spent 11 days in Ireland last year at the end of may with a friend of mine. I will always recommend going that time to my friends because it wasn’t crowded yet. We are just out of college so cost was a big deal. We ended up staying in hostels and found it a great way to save money. We did rent a car and it was so worth while. We found that it was going to be more expensive but we gained the flexibility of being able to travel when we wanted to. It also worked out well because we were able to see a good amount of places in both Ireland and Northern Irealand. Since we had a car were were able to do food shopping at the grocery store and bring it with us and since most hostels had a kitchen we were able to save money on food.